Into the Wild: Unusual Ideas of Happiness Are Just As Real Pramika Kadari 9th Grade

Katherine Kallinis and Sophie LaMontagne graduated from respectable colleges and began leading stables lives, working steady jobs in areas they enjoyed. Then, one day, after saying to themselves ‘We have to stop thinking about what other people will think about us, and we have to do what makes us happy,’ the two sisters quit their corporate jobs to open a bakery together, refusing to care that taking such a risk did not follow society’s traditional route to a happy life. Years later, they are joyfully living their lives to the fullest. On April 28, 1992, Christopher McCandless walked into the wild after burning his possessions, donating his money, and leaving a degree from Emory University in the dust. Four months later, his body was found. Many people refused to believe that Chris’s ventures were not a result of stupidity or a desire for self destruction. The strongest idea developed throughout Into the Wild is that contrary to society’s opinion, one’s path to happiness does not need to be conventional in order to be real.

Throughout his piece, Krakauer displays that Christopher McCandless was driven to walk into the wild by the thirst to flourish his soul--a perfectly natural thirst that burns in the heart of every human...